When decorating articles using for example a printing process which entails successively applying to the article a plurality of individual print images which together combine on the article to form the overall print image which is generally multi-colored, there is the risk that the inks or colors of two or more individual print images mingle together, even if only slightly, so that the resulting overall print image gives an impression which does not correspond to that which was intended. That danger arises in particular when printing on surfaces which are very smooth so that they do not have an absorption effect for the printing ink, as occurs for example when printing on paper. CDs, telephone cards and the like may be mentioned here as examples of articles of that kind to which printing is to be applied.
A prerequisite for the production of a good-quality overall print image which involves different colors is that the article to which the printing is to be applied and the printing mechanisms for applying the partial print images that together make up the overall print image can be precisely oriented and positioned relative to each other. The degree of accuracy which is required for that purpose when transporting the articles into the respective printing station and also during the printing operation in which the article must be moved for example in accordance with the peripheral speed of the impression cylinder of the printing mechanism cannot be achieved with the transport wheels or tables which are usually employed nowadays and which generally rotate in a stepwise fashion, with the treatment stations, that is to say also the printing station, being arranged at the periphery thereof. That is essentially to be attributed to the fact that a certain amount of play in the drive and in the mounting assemblies of such transport tables or wheels cannot ever be entirely avoided. On the other hand those transport tables or wheels also suffer from the disadvantage that the diameter thereof increases with an increasing number of treatment stations to be arranged around the periphery thereof, so that they can no longer be transported or they can be transported only with some considerable difficulty.